PortHarcourt:  The Rivers Council of NUJ has expressed shock over the death of veteran journalist Mimere Amakiri on Thursday.

Mrs Miebaka Amakiri, the wife of the deceased, said on Sunday that her husband died on Aug. 19 in Port Harcourtat the age of 62.

Amakiri would be remembered as the journalist who was flogged and his hair shaved on the orders of a former military governor of Rivers, retired Cdr. Alfred Diete Spitf.

Amakiri was then the correspondent of Observer Newspapers in Port Harcourt.

The Rivers Chairman of NUJ, Mr Opaka Dokubo, said journalists had lost a great talent and professional.

Mr Lawson Heyford, the state Chairman of Federated Correspondents’ Chapel of NUJ, said Amakiri’s death had created a vacuum in the journalism profession.

He said Amakiri passed on when younger journalists needed to tap from his experience.

The state Publicity Secretary of ACN,  Mr Jerry Needam, said the party  regretted the death of Amakiri.

Needam said Amakiri stood by the masses and used his paper, the Beacon, to advocate for a better society.

Before his death, Amakiri was the publisher of a Port Harcourt-based paper, the Beacon. (NAN)